WASHINGTON – Federal prosecutors charged WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange with espionage Thursday for conspiring to reveal national security secrets in what they described as one of the largest compromises of classified information in U.S. history.

The Justice Department revealed 18 charges against Assange. They include allegations that he aided and abetted former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning's efforts to leak classified documents to the anti-secrecy group and committed a crime by publishing them on the internet.

“This release made our adversaries stronger and more knowledgeable, and the United States less secure," said John Demers, assistant attorney general for national security.

The charges are an escalation of the government's efforts to combat leaks of its secrets, and raised the difficult question of how – or whether – to distinguish WikiLeaks from journalists who frequently publish information the government would rather keep secret. They drew quick condemnation from advocates for press freedom.

Bruce Brown, the executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said criminalizing the receipt and publication of classified documents threatens all journalists. "Any government use of the Espionage Act to criminalize the receipt and publication of classified information poses a dire threat to journalists seeking to publish such information in the public interest," he said.

Assange has argued that he should be immune from prosecution as a journalist, authorities said he was charged for releasing a narrow class of documents that dealt with people who provided the United States with intelligence in war zones. The WikiLeaks databases contain approximately 90,000 Afghanistan War-related significant activity reports, 400,000 Iraq War-related significant activities reports, 800 Guantanamo Bay detainee assessment briefs and 250,000 U.S. Department of State cables, according to prosecutors.

“The department takes seriously the role of journalists in our democracy, and we thank you for it. It is not and never has been the department's policy to target them for reporting," Demers said. "But Julian Assange is no journalist."

“Indeed, no responsible actor, journalist or otherwise, would purposely publish the names of individuals he or she knew to be confidential human sources in war zones," Demers said.

The Justice Department revealed in April that it had filed a criminal case against Assange after Ecuador expelled him from its embassy in London. That charge alleged that he conspired with Manning to crack a password to a military computer where classified information was stored. The case was filed in 2018 but kept secret for more than a year.

The allegations revealed on Thursday were more wide-ranging and more directly related to WikiLeaks' efforts to obtain and publish U.S. government secrets.

Barry Pollack, Assange's lawyer, said it is unprecedented for the government to charge someone under the Espionage Act for encouraging sources to provide truthful information and then publishing it.

"The fig leaf that this is merely about alleged computer hacking has been removed," Pollack said. "These unprecedented charges demonstrate the gravity of the threat the criminal prosecution of Julian Assange poses to all journalists in their endeavor to inform the public about actions that have taken by the U.S. government. "

WikiLeaks tweeted that the case marked the end of national-security journalism.

"This is madness," the group said. "It is the end of national security journalism and the First Amendment."

Nearly all of the new charges against Assange accuse him of violating the Espionage Act, a federal law meant to safeguard defense information. It's unusual for prosecutors to bring such a case against someone who does not work for the government and has not promised to keep its secrets.

The charges include one count of conspiracy to receive national security information, seven counts of obtaining it, nine counts of disclosing it and one count of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. Prosecutors alleged that Assange also revealed the names of intelligence sources in Afghanistan, China, Iran, Iraq and Syria.

“Assange is alleged to have created grave and imminent risk to their lives and liberty,” Demers said.

“Assange is not charged simply because he was a publisher,” said Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. attorney for the eastern district of Virginia, where the charges against Assange were filed.

Assange was arrested April 11 in London after Ecuador's government ended his seven years of self-imposed exile and expelled him from its London embassy. He is fighting extradition to the United States.

Over four months in 2010, Manning downloaded hundreds of thousands of secret reports on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as State Department cables and information about detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Manning turned the records over to WikiLeaks, which passed them to journalists and published them on the internet.

Assange had been holed up with political asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012. After his arrest, he was sentenced in Britain to 50 weeks in jail for jumping bail while facing extradition to Sweden on sexual-assault allegations.

Assange also faces sexual misconduct allegations in Sweden. While one Swedish case of alleged sexual misconduct against Assange was dropped in 2017, when the statute of limitations expired, a rape allegation remains. The statute of limitations in the rape case expires in August 2020. Assange has denied wrongdoing, asserting that the allegations were politically motivated and that the sex was consensual.

NEWSLETTER SIGN UP

OFFICIAL LINKS

CONNECT TO US:

NRIS.COM is one of the premier NRI website that provides a range of resourceful services to Indian expats residing in the USA. Visiting the site you will find comprehensive information related to restaurants, casinos, pubs, temples, carpool, movies, education, real estate, and forums. The simple and easy to navigate format allows NRIs to gain information within a fraction of a second. Moreover, advertising through its column of Indian free classifieds in USA allow businesses to improve visibility of their brand.

If you see any copy righted data/image used in this site please bring to our notice at copyrights@nris.com, we will take the action and remove that content as soon as we can.

LOGIN

Terms And Conditions!

The NRIS Nationwide chat room and State Wide Chat rooms are operated by the NRIS.com staff, and users falls under a number of regulations. This is to ensure a safe and fun chatting environment for all!

No Foul Language - Please avoid using obscene words or phrases. Like the forums, the chat is considered a PG-13 zone, and thus the language used should reflect that. Using foul language may result in a warning. Persistent behavior of the kind will not be tolerated and will result in a ban.

No Flooding or Excess Spam - Please do not flood the channel with meaningless or repetitive messages. It distracts from the conversation and may result in a kick from the channel. Repeat offenses will result in bans.

No Advertising - Entering the channel and using it solely to promote another website, IRC channel, etc will result in being kicked/banned from the room. We do not mind you talking about your own Trek fan films and the like, but we ask that you not use the channel solely for that purpose. The room is, after all, a Hidden Frontier chat room.

Do Not Falsely Represent Yourself - Falsely representing yourself as an HF cast/crewmember or another member is grounds for an immediate and permanent ban from the chat room. To protect your identity, we recommend that you register your nickname with NickServ. You can get more information on how to do this by typing /msg NickServ Register into the channel.

Do Not Beg for Ops - Ops, or channel operators (indicated by a @, %, ~, or & next to their nickname) are moderators of the room. Do not beg or request to become an op in the channel, as it will result in an immediate kick from the room. Repeat behavior will result in a ban. Operators are (typically) production and/or forum staff members. While we do recruit non- forum/production staff members to assist us in moderation on occasion, we invite you, and not the other way around.

Do Not Evade Bans - Ban evasion, which is defined as deliberately getting around a ban (either by changing your IP or other means) before the ban is served completely. Ban evasion will result in a temporary ban becoming a permanent one. Repeat attempts will result in it being considered as harassment, the consequences of which are defined below.

Follow Operator Instructions - We ask that you follow all instructions given to you by channel operators. Failure to follow instructions will result in a kick and/or ban from the channel. If you feel you were unfairly targeted by an operator, you may file a report us at Admin@nris.com

Do Not Harass Members - Harassing members or moderators of the chat room, or any other user on the IRC server will result in severe repercussions, including but not limited to a kline -- or permanent ban from the server (not just the channel) -- and possibly a police report, depending on the severity of the harassment.

No Leetspeak - Please do not use "leet speak" (l1k3 7h1s s0r7 0f 7yp1ng) or variants thereof. Also, using excessive forms of slang or "street talk" may result in warnings, and eventually a kick/ban from the channel.

Operator Authority - Channel operators are empowered to enforce these regulations, make exceptions to them when necessary, and use their discretion when applying punishment. If you feel you have been treated unfairly, you may file a complaint at Admin@NRIS.com

Thanks for joining us in chat!

Terms And Conditions!

Terms and conditions before registering with our site after entered all the info. Registration terms and conditions guidelines

I am responsible what ever the content I post at any section of this site ,to respect that I do not post any content, rate or reply/review that may be considered, abusive, vulgar, offensive, obscene.

Site Management is not responsible for any violations as per law.

This site is for public for free use I always maintain courtesy, if i am a business person/organization, marketing person or any other soliciting person I oath for not repeated posts, if any, site management have right to find the IP address or delete the my ID and barred for future postings from this IP address.

We respect Privacy according to US law, by agreeing these terms I honor that I never post others information like name phone numbers addresses etc.

I oath i never do spamming, no repeated ads this sections with useless content, and i agree i am responsible to open any external links/URLs posted by other users and/or by Admin.

I am agreeing that after i accept these terms & conditions i solely responsible for whatever the content si post here or share here in public chat.

NRIS.com Reserves all right to remove or delete any user permanantly with out any reason or prior notifcation.

I am authorizing NRIS.com can track my IPaddress all the times for legal reasons.

I always respect all other users of this site and I expect the same from other users of this site.

I know that public chat is limited just to share the views of political issues, movies, sports and educational issues and I oath I never use unparliamentary, unlawful, abusive, vulgar words or phrases at any time.